The first time Jack Law came to Hawaii it was to attend the University of Hawaii in 1966 — and to get away from cold winter weather he’d endured in Detroit.

Law didn’t stay, but he returned. Hawaii has been his home ever since.

In 1974, Law and his business partner, kamaaina businessman Eaton “Bob” Magoon, opened Hula’s Bar & Lei Stand on Magoon Estate land in Waikiki — the open-air nightclub became both a cutting-edge disco and a uniquely “out” gathering place for Honolulu’s gay community. Several years later Law and Magoon developed the Wave Waikiki as a mainstream nightclub and concert venue.

Law served for eight years on the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission and was a founding board member of the nonprofit Life Foundation which provides services for people living with HIV/AIDS. In 1989 he founded the Honolulu Adam Baran Gay Film Festival — now known officially as the Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival in Honor of Adam Baran — as a memorial to Baran and platform for the work of gay filmmakers.

Law, 72, is working on plans for a memorial observance for Magoon, who died last month in California. He is also a major sponsor of this year’s Honolulu Pride events, which include the Honolulu Pride Parade Saturday, Oct. 20, in Waikiki.

JOHN BERGER: What was your first project with Bob Magoon?

JACK LAW: In 1970 Bob and I made a recording studio in the basement of the Magoon Estate building on Alakea Street, and put together a band that we named the Potted Palm. We recorded them, and the A-side of the single was a song — “My House of Grass” — that Bob wrote.

JB: What were your plans when you opened Hula’s in 1974?

JL: There was this piece of Magoon Estate land that was across from the Kuhio movie theater and Bob said, “Let’s start a bar.”

We literally didn’t know what we were doing, but ignorance is bliss and we just did it, and went on with it. For some reason, Waikiki was a gay destination (in the 1970s) and Hula’s was part of that although Hula’s wasn’t the first gay bar in Waikiki.

JB: How did the Wave Waikiki become a concert venue?

JL: I was able to work with Ken Rosene and Greg Mundy — they were major promoters — and when the Blaisdell was too big for one of their acts, we’d get performers like Grace Jones at the Wave.

We also presented (local) bands like The Squids and Sonya & The Revolucion.

JB: Who was Adam Baran?

JL: Adam had been veejay (video disc jockey) and a video editor in video clubs in New York and West Hollywood and San Francisco before he came to Hawaii. This was when music videos were brand-new — before MTV.

We had an editing bay upstairs at the Wave and he would put songs together with stuff that he pulled together and it was all done to the beat of the music.

When Adam died of AIDS, I didn’t want him to be forgotten. We started the film festival to keep his memory alive.

JB: What is something about you that might surprise people?

JL: When I was living outside Detroit I worked for a wholesale record distributor in downtown Detroit.

JB: What’s the biggest change you’ve seen since you came to Hawaii?

JL: When I first came here I was fighting being gay tooth and nail. The last thing I wanted to do was be gay.

I think to myself how lucky I am that I have lived to see the fact that you don’t have to be ashamed anymore (of being gay), and to see Hawaii become more accepting of gay people.